Australia

Practice 3 was a routine session to set the car up for the Qualifying later today. John Martin enjoyed better track time frustrated at times with dust across many of the corners of this Taupo Motorsport Park.

There was an early issue with the stewards as Martin crossed the white line on entry to pit lane that was later dismissed. Pit Stop practice continued for the Sunday races with simulated starting procedures that occupied a third of the session. The session ended for Martin in eighth position with a time of 1:16.314 a gap of 1.202 to A1 Team Italy.

It is very important in qualifying here at Taupo to give yourself a good gap between you and the car[s]in front to save losing time on your flying lap. The team planned it well to release John to give him the space and clean air to set a time of 1:16.388 in Q1 to improve to 1:15.504 in Q2 of the Sprint Qualifying, taking 7th place on tomorrow's starting grid.

The plans were the same for the Feature qualifying to allow Martin time to get a perfect lap in with the track grip improving on a new set of tyres. As soon as the team released him he set a time of 1:15.306, an improvement of two tenths from the previous session. Sitting in second place after Q1 of the Feature qualifying, John was happy with the car to go out later in Q2. That was a good call until A1 Team Italy jumped in front of him at the end of pit lane. Rob Arnott called over the radio to 'hold back to give him some room' on his installation lap before the flying lap. At turn 12 the Italian driver lost control for a moment allowing Martin to pass him on Martin's flying lap also trying to avoid a collision. This incident cost him a few tenths and to move A1 Team Australia into 4th place on the grid for the Feature race.

John Martin: "The car was good and we have a few changes to make for the racing tomorrow. I made a slight mistake in Q1 during the Sprint qualifying that cost me some places on the grid for sure. We knew I had to improve the times to gain some places on the grid in Q2 as the car was great today. We made it to 7th position on the grid for the sprint race tomorrow. Our Feature qualifying was a little different with more grip down on the track and my times improved. Only for the issue at turn 12 with Italy I could have held 2nd or 3rd, but 4th is the best so far so let's try and improve on that for both races tomorrow"

Alan Jones A1 Team Australia Seatholder: "John did very well, exactly what we asked. His feedback into the team from the garage and on the track was the best he has delivered so far since he joined us a year ago as the full time driver for A1 Team Australia. You can see improvements in his driving ability, his attitude to the track conditions and the way he handles this new car. Very impressive driving, good grid positions for tomorrow, we may even land a podium if all goes well for us throughout the day"

Rob Arnott Chief Engineer: "John did well. He listened and gave us excellent feedback to make the right changes at the right time. A few issues on track we sorted out between the qualifying sessions to help us get the best setup for tomorrow's racing. The whole team have done a great job and we look forward to some more improvements on our current grid positions at the end of both races"

Brazil

A1 Team Brazil's Felipe Guimarães today qualified for this weekend's A1GP Taupo event at the Taupo Motorsports Park in New Zealand. He will begin tomorrow's Sprint race from the seventh row of the grid and the Feature race from the sixth row.

The day kicked off with a final practice session, which the team used to continue preparations and set-up work ahead of the afternoon qualifying. At the fifteen minute mark Felipe briefly topped the table, but as the session progressed he slipped down the standings. With twenty minutes to go he was back up to sixth but a late flurry of fast laps, and four teams bolting on a fresh set of rubber put Felipe down to 12th position with a time of 1:16.695 after completing 29 laps on the 3.32km track.

In the Sprint race qualifying, he set a lap of 1:16.346 in the first segment and was sitting in provisional eighth spot. He improved his time in the second segment by three tenths to record a time of 1:16.074, but as other drivers improved further, he was relegated to 13th spot by the end of the session, setting himself up on the seventh row of the grid for the 25-minute Sprint race tomorrow morning.

Heading out late into first segment of qualifying for the Feature race, Felipe set a time of 1:16.305 to take provisional 12th. Although improving his time by more than half a second in the fourth and final segment, his lap of 1:15.812 was not enough to move up the table and he remained in 12th spot, so will line up on the sixth row for the Feature.

Felipe Guimarães: "This morning was a little better than yesterday and we made improvements with the brakes and other things. Unfortunately qualifying was not what I was hoping it to be. I thought we would be in the top ten at least. Now we have to work on the data, see what the problem is and hope to have a good race tomorrow."

Emerson Fittipaldi, Team Principal: "We are off pace and unfortunately are a second behind the leaders so something is wrong on the basic set-up. We are running strong on old tyres but don't make as much of an improvement on new tyres as other teams. We need to work on the set-up and find a jump in the lap times by tomorrow."

France